Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

Petitioner was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for a nonhomicide offense he committed at the age of sixteen. After Graham v. Florida was decided, petitioner sought postconviction relief but the state courts denied it. The court concluded that petitioner's state court adjudication constituted an unreasonable application of Graham where Virginia courts unreasonably ignored the plain language of the procedures governing review of petitions for geriatric release, which authorize the State Parole Board to deny geriatric release for any reason, without considering a juvenile offender’s maturity and rehabilitation. In light of the lack of governing standards, the court concluded that it was objectively unreasonable for the state courts to conclude that geriatric release affords petitioner with the “meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation” Graham demands. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's grant of habeas relief and remanded so that petitioner can be resentenced in accordance with Graham and the Eighth Amendment. View "LeBlanc v. Mathena" on Justia Law

A federal grand jury indicted Maria Rosalba Alvarado McTague and Felix Chujoy on charges of visa fraud and various immigration violations stemming from their operation of a Peruvian restaurant in Virginia. In this interlocutory appeal, the government challenges the district court's order excluding grand jury testimony from use at trial without having found prosecutorial misconduct or bad faith in the underlying grand jury proceeding. The court found that the district court abused its discretion where it failed to provide a sufficient explanation for its decision, its stated reasons do not comport with precedent or the facts of record, and its conclusion regarding “fundamental fairness” provides no legal standard by which to measure the appropriateness of the evidentiary exclusion. Nevertheless, the court rejected the government’s argument that the district court may never exclude grand jury evidence except as a sanction for prosecutorial misconduct. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. McTague" on Justia Law

Petitioner was indicted for murder and other crimes committed while he was a minor over twenty years ago. Petitioner pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence with the opportunity for parole. Petitioner now challenges the validity of his guilty plea and appeals the district court’s denial of relief on his 28 U.S.C. 2254 petition. The court granted a certificate of appealability on the limited issue of whether Roper v. Simmons, which invalidated the death penalty for juvenile offenders, may be applied retroactively to invalidate petitioner's guilty plea. The court held that Roper does not provide an avenue for relief and concluded that the district court correctly found that Roper did not apply to situations where a defendant pled guilty to a non-capital sentence to avoid the possibility of a capital sentence. Furthermore, in light of Brady v. United States, the court found no infirmity in the plea that petitioner entered. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of his federal habeas petition. View "Dingle v. Stevenson" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy, making a false statement, theft, and embezzlement, all in connection with her unlawful receipt of government benefits. Defendant argues that, in the affidavit supporting the search warrant for the house, the affiant recklessly omitted material, exculpatory facts. The critical information that defendant maintains the special agent recklessly omitted from his affidavit were facts demonstrating that she and her husband “occupied different parts of the house.” The court affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress, concluding that the inclusion of the omitted information would not have defeated probable cause for the search and thus that information was not material. View "United States v. Wharton" on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. 924(e), to a mandatory minimum sentence of 180 months in prison. The court affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress but found that, because of an intervening change in law following sentencing, the district court erroneously sentenced defendant under the ACCA. In this case, Johnson v. United States was decided during the pendency of the appeal and the Supreme Court held in that case that the residual clause is unconstitutionally vague and therefore violates due process. Therefore, defendant's prior burglary convictions do not qualify as the ACCA enumerated offense of "burglary" under the categorical approach. Accordingly, the court affirmed defendant's conviction, vacated the sentence, and remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. White" on Justia Law

Defendant plead guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender and one count of illegal reentry. The district court concluded that defendant's prior felony conviction qualified as a crime of violence and applied a 16-level enhancement, sentencing defendant to 46 months in prison. The court applied the plain and ordinary meaning of the Sentencing Guidelines' language and determined that defendant's prior conviction under Md. Code Ann., Crim. Law 3-307(a)(1) qualifies as a "forcible sex offense" for purposes of USSG 2L1.2. The court joined the other circuits addressing the issue and held that, for purposes of the re-entry Guideline, a “sex offense” is an offense involving sexual conduct with another person. And as the Guidelines commentary itself makes clear, a sex offense is “forcible” if it is not consensual. Therefore, the lease culpable version of the crime defined by section 3-307(a)(1) - sexual contact while aided or abetted by another - categorically qualifies as a “forcible sex offense” and thus a “crime of violence” under USSG 2L1.2. Accordingly, the court affirmed the sentence. View "United States v. Alfaro" on Justia Law

Defendant, a CPA, appealed his sentence and conviction for conspiracy and obstruction of justice following his involvement in earnings mismanagement and improper accounting transactions while acting as chief accounting officer of Beazer Homes. The court concluded that the district court did not err in excluding evidence surrounding the false email accusations. In any event, any error was harmless where defendant was not ultimately prejudiced. The court also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in quashing defendant's Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17(c) subpoena to Beazer; in prohibiting defendant's accounting expert from testifying about work papers prepared by Beazer's independent auditors; and in allowing the government to have Beazer employees testify as lay witnesses about the propriety of complex accounting transactions without calling an accounting expert to testify. Finally, the court rejected all three of defendant's potential misconduct claims and concluded that any error was harmless. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Rand" on Justia Law

Claimants appeal the district court's entry of default judgment for the government in a civil forfeiture action against funds deposited in claimants’ names in banks in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Default judgment was entered after the government successfully moved to disentitle claimants from defending their claims to the defendant property under the federal fugitive disentitlement statute, 28 U.S.C. 2466. Claimants’ alleged copyright infringement scheme, dubbed the “Mega Conspiracy,” used public websites to facilitate the illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted movies, software, television programs, and music. The court rejected claimants' challenge to the district court's in rem jurisdiction over assets in foreign countries; the court affirmed the district court's adoption of the reasoning in Collazos v. United States, a Second Circuit case, holding that claimants had waived the due process rights they claim were violated by operation of section 2466; as section 2466 predicates disentitlement on an allowable presumption that a criminal fugitive lacks a meritorious defense to a related civil forfeiture, the court concluded that it does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and affirmed the district court’s decision; and the court adopted a specific intent standard for section 2466 and affirmed the district court's finding of intent with respect to each defendant. The court rejected claimants' remaining arguments and affirmed the judgment in its entirety. View "United States v. Batato" on Justia Law

In 2006, Keith Alan Clark was found guilty of kidnapping and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct. In 2014, Clark, pro se, filed a motion for extension of time to request a certificate of appealability. At issue is whether this motion, filed within the thirty day requirement of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4, is the functional equivalent of a formal notice of appeal demanded by Rule 3. The court held that a document filed by a pro se litigant as an extension of time to request a certificate of appealability qualifies as the notice of appeal required by Rule 3. Because Clark's motion was timely under Rule 4 and satisfied the notice requirements of Rule 3, the court concluded that it has jurisdiction to consider Clark's application for a certificate of appealability. View "Clark v. Cartledge" on Justia Law

Defendants, four commercial boat captains, were charged with violating the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. 3372(a)(1), after they caught Atlantic striped bass in federal waters and later sold them. The district court granted defendants' motions to dismiss the indictment. The court concluded that the text of the fishery management plan created by the Commission and referenced by the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. 5151, in fact regulates only state coastal waters, and accordingly does not regulate fishing in federal waters. Therefore, the court concluded that the Lacey Act does not except from prosecution defendants' conduct alleged in the indictments. The court also rejected the contention that the regulatory regime governing defendants' actions is unconstitutionally vague. Accordingly, the court reversed the orders of the district court dismissing the indictments and remanded the cases with instructions that the indictments be reinstated. View "United States v. Saunders" on Justia Law